INDIAN RIGHTS 

AND 

OUR DUTIES. 



AN 

ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT 

KHERSTp HARTFORD, ETR 



DECEMBER, 1829, 



BY HEMAN HUMPHREY, D. D. 
'President of Amherst College. 



Price Two Cents. 

ereotyped for the Association for diffusing information oa the subject of 
JV Indian Rights. 

1831, 



What the Indians have most to lament for the past 
and to fear for the future is, the apathy of their friends* 
Could these be roused up to do what is in their 
power — first, to inform the public mind, and second, 
to effect an expression of public opinion, by petitions 
to Congress, they would have little to fear from their 
enemies. It is a fact, and one that ought to be known, 
that Christians have been deterred from the public ex- 
pression of their opinions and feelings in favor of the 
Indians, by a fear of the imputation of political mo- 
tives. But should not the language of every Chris- 
tian, and every man of humanity, be — Whilst I will 
not be influenced by party politics to espouse the cause I 
of the Indians, neither will I be prevented from doing 
my duty to them, by the charge of being actuated by 
that motive. 

The Minister to whom this is sent, is solicited to 
procure, or get some member of his church to procure 
a small contribution, to purchase (at two cents a-piece) 
one copy for every family in his congregation ; to send 
to Albany for them ; and when received, to have them 
distributed without delay. 

Should there be in his place of residence, any other 
minister of any denomination, who may not have re- 
ceived a copy, he is requested to endeavor to get him 
to do the same in his congregation. 

Orders to be sent to Ebenezer Watson, Albany. 

\TT Any parcels wanted for the southern or eastern states, he wil 
have immediately dispatched from New-York, where the work i 
printed. Particular directions should be given as to the mode of foi 
warding them. 



ADDRESS 



The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and 
have vexed the poor and needy ; yea, they have oppressed the stranger 
wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them that should make up 
the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not 
destroy it : but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indigna- 
tion upon them ; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath ; their 
own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God, — ■ 
Ezekiel. 

About nine hundred years before this appalling record 
was made by the prophet, God denounced against Israel 
the very punishment which is here declared to have been 
inflicted. This denunciation was communicated to the 
people by their great law-giver, at the foot of Mount Si- 
nai. " Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress 
him ; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Ye 
shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child : if thou 
afflict them in any wise and they cry at all unto me, I 
will surely hear their cry; and my wrath shall wax hot, 
and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall 
be widows and your children fatherless." 

How long the Israelites remembered their own suffer- 
ings in Egypt, and were restrained from deeds of violence 
and oppression, we are not informed. But we learn from 
Ezekiel, that regardless of justice and humanity, and ia 
defiance of the wrath of God revealed from heaven, they 
at length used oppression and exercised robbery, and 
vexed the poor and needy, and oppressed the stranger 
wrongfully. And though the prophets and some few 
others boldly remonstrated, though they exhorted the 
people to repent, and would fain have averted the threat- 
ened judgments by their prayers, they were borne down 
and disheartened by the overwhelming torrent of corrup- 
tion. No man in authority was found to second their ef- 
forts. Neither the king, nor any of his nobles or coun* 
sellors stood in the gap. None of them employed their 



4 



Humphrey's address, 



abilities and influence to stop the progress of wicked- 
ness and rescue those who were crying to God from under 
the hand of violence ; wherefore, he poured out his fury 
upon the people and consumed them with the fire of his 
anger. 

And is there no monitory voice addressed to other na- 
tions m all this? Or if there be, are we at liberty to place 
it on the same ground with other ancient historical re- 
cords ? Wo to the politician, wo to the moralist, who 
shall attempt thus to bring down the writings of Moses 
and the prophets to a level with Josephus and Tacitus. 
If the historical and prophetical books of the Old Testa- 
ment are true, they are inspired, and, as an apostle as- 
sures us " are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction, in righteousness." 

And perhaps of all nations, whether ancient or modern, 
we are most deeply interested in the dealings of God 
with the children of Israel. In looking back upon their 
deliverances and their sins, most emphatically may we 
repeat and appropriate to ourselves the words of Paul 
to the Corinthians ; " Now all these things happened unto 
them lor ensamples, and they are written for our admo- 
nition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 

Are we then of these United States chargeable with 
violence, oppression, and robbery? Is the unoffending 
and beseeching stranger any where vexed and persecut- 
ed m this boasted land of religion, justice, and humanity ? 
Is there an individual, is there a whole people at the pre- 
sent moment, either suffering from our rapacity, or trem- 
bling at our cruel menaces ? Would God that we could 
indignantly answer these questions in the negative. 
Would God that the recorded testimony of our intentional 
encroachments upon the sacred rights of humanity could 
be prevented from crossing the ocean in every ship, to 
excite the loud derision of all the enemies of republican 
institutions. 

I allude not here to African servitude. For terrible as 
it is over one half the land, it is a hereditary curse and 
shame, against which the constituted authorities of the 
nation, in obedience to the voice of the people, long since 
bore their solemn testimony by prohibiting the impor- 
tation of slaves. 



Humphrey's address, 



But there is another, and a still more interesting peo- 
ple, dwelling within the limits of what we have been 
pleased to mark off as our national territory, who have al- 
ready been subjected, I had almost said, to a harder fate 
than the Africans themselves. The first European settlers 
found them here, the immemorial possessors and undis- 
puted lords of the country ; and what has become of 
those powerful tribes that two centuries ago dwelt where 
we now dwell ; and kindled their watch-fires where our 
proudest cities stand ; and owned all these rivers, and 
bays, and harbors, and great lakes, and lofty mountains 
and fertile vallies? Where are they? A nobler race of 
wild men never existed in any age or country. We are 
accustomed to speak of them as ferocious savages. — ■ 
And it is true they were uncivilized. They had no 
schools nor Colleges. They had never enjoyed the 
blessed light of Christianity ; and in their wars with one 
another they were as cruel as they were brave and craf- 
ty. It is true, also, that when we began to extend our 
settlements far into the country, and they saw us in pos- 
session of their finest hunting grounds and fisheries, they 
became jealous of us, and being instigated by our ene- 
mies, the French, who then flanked our whole northern 
and western frontier, from the gulph of St. Lawrence to 
the mouth of the Missouri, they made depredations upon 
our property, and cruelly butchered some of our people. 

All this is true. But savages as they were, they bore 
with our gradual encroachments much longer than we 
should have done with theirs under similar circumstances, 
and taught us lessons which may well put to the blush 
all our boasted religion and civilization. 

"The Indians," says Dr. Trumbull, "at the first set- 
tlement of our fathers, performed many acts of kindness 
toward them. They instructed them in the manner of 
planting and dressing the Indian corn. They carried 
them safe through rivers and waters. They gave them 
much useful information respecting the country, and 
when the English and their children were lost in the 
woods, and were in danger of perishing with hunger or 
cold, they conducted them to their wigwams, fed them 
and restored them to their families and parents. By sell- 
ing them corn when pinched with famine, they relieved 



6 



Humphrey's address. 



their distresses and prevented their perishing in a strange 
land and uncultivated wilderness." The same historian 
tells us, " that it was nearly sixteen years after the settle- 
ment of Plymouth, before the Indians commenced hosti- 
lities upon their English neighbors :" and again, " that the 
English lived in tolerable peace with all the Indians in 
New-England, except the Pequots, for about forty years." 

Thus, when we were few and they were many ; we 
were weak and they were strong — instead of driving us 
back into the sea, as they might have done at any time, 
they cherished our perilous infancy, and tendered to us 
the sacred emblems of peace. They gave us land, as 
much as we wanted, or sold it to us for nothing. They 
permitted us quietly to clear up the wilderness, and to 
build habitations, and school houses, and churches. And 
when every thing began to smile around us, under the 
combined influence of industry, education, and religion, 
these savages did not come to us and say, " We want 
your houses — we want your fine cultivated farms— you 
must move off. There is room enough for you beyond 
the western rivers, where you may settle down on a bet- 
ter soil, and begin anew." 

Nor, because we were strongly attached to our fire- 
sides and to our fathers' sepulchres, did they say, " You 
are mere tenants at will : we own all the land, and if you 
insist upon staying longer you must dissolve your go- 
vernment and submit to such laws as we choose to make 
for you." 

No — the Indian tribes of the seventeenth century 
knew nothing of these modern refinements : they were 
no such adepts in the law of nature and of nations. They 
allowed us to abide by our own council fires, and to go- 
vern ourselves as we chose, when they could either have 
dispossessed or subjugated us at pleasure We did re- 
main, and we gradually waxed rich and strong. We 
wanted more land, and they sold it to us at our own 
price. Still we are not satisfied. There was room enough 
to the west, and we advised them to move farther back. 
If they took our advice, well. If not, we knew how to 
enforce it. And where are those once terrible nations 
now? Driven alternately by purchase and by conquest, 
from river to river, and from mountain to mountain, they 



Humphrey's address, 



1 



have disappeared with their own gigantic forests, and we, 
their enlightened heirs at law and the sword, now plough 
up their bones with as much indifference as we do their 
arrows. Shall I name the Mohegans, the Pequots, the 
Iroquois, and the Mohawks I What has become of them, 
and of a hundred other independent nations which dwelt 
on this side of the Mississippi when we landed at Ply- 
mouth and at James' Town? Here and there, as at Pe- 
nobscot, and Mashpee, and Oneida, you may see a dimi- 
nutive and downcast remnant, wandering like troubled 
ghosts among the graves of their mighty progenitors. 
Thus have our trinkets, our threats, our arms, our whis- 
key, our bribes, and our vices, all but annihilated those 
vast physical and intellectual energies of a native popu- 
lation, which for more than a hundred and fifty years 
could make us quake and flee at pleasure throughout all 
our northern, western, and southern borders. 

There is something more than metaphor, more than 
the wild flowers of Indian rhetoric, in the speech of a 
distinguished chief to General Knox, about the close of 
the last century. " Brother, I have been looking at your 
beautiful city — the great waters — your fine country, and 
I see how you all are. But then I could not help think- 
ing that this fine country, and this great water, were once 
ours. Our ancestors lived here ; they enjoyed it as their 
own place ; it was the gift of the Great Spirit to them 
and their children. At last the white people came here 
in a great canoe. They asked us only to let them tie it 
to a tree, lest the waters should carry it away ; we con- 
sented. They said some of their people were sick, and 
asked leave to land them and put them under the shade 
of the trees. The ice then came, and they could not go 
away. They begged for a piece of land to build wig- 
wams for the winter; we granted it to them. Then they 
asked for some corn to keep them from starving ; and we 
kindlv furnished it to them. 

" Afterward more came. They brought spirituous and 
intoxicating liquors with them, of which the Indians were 
very fond. They persuaded us to sell them some land. 
Finally they drove us back from time to time, into the 
wilderness, far from the water and the fishes. They have 
destroyed the game ; and our people have wasted away ; 



Humphrey's address. 



and now we live miserable and wretched, while you are 
enjoying our fine and beautiful country. This makes me 
sorry, brother, and I cannot help it." 

Here is truth and nature ; nor is there less of either in 
the speech of the famous Logan to Lord Dunmore, go- 
vernor of Virginia. 

" M y cabin, since I had one of my own, has ever been 
open to any white man who wanted shelter. My spoils 
of hunting, since first I began to range these woods, 
have I ever imparted to appease his hunger, to clothe his 
nakedness. But what have I seen ? What ! But that at 
my return at night, laden with spoil, my numerous fa- 
mily lie bleeding on the ground by the hand of those who 
had found my little hut a certain refuge from the 
storm, who had eaten my food, who had covered them- 
selves with my skins. What have I seen ? What ! But 
that those dear little mouths for which I had all day toil- 
ed, when I returned to fill them, had not one word to 
thank me for all that toil. 

" What could I resolve upon ! My blood boiled within 
me. My heart leaped to my mouth ! Nevertheless, I 
bid my tomahawk be quiet, and lie at rest, for that war, 
because I thought the great men of your country sent 
them not to do it. Not long after, some of your men 
invited our tribe to cross the river and bring their venison 
with them. They came as they had been invited. The 
white men then made them drunk, murdered them, and 
turned their knives even against the women. Was not 
my own sister among them? Was she not scalped by the 
hands of the very man whom she had taught to escape 
his enemies when they were scenting out his track ? 
What could I resolve upon? My blood boiled thrice hot- 
ter than before. Thrice again my heart leaped to my 
mouth. I bade no longer my tomahawk to be quiet and 
rest for that war. 

" 1 sprang from my cabin to avenge their blood, and fully 
have I done it in this war, by shedding yours, from your 

coldest to your hottest sun. I am now for peace to 

peace have I advised most of my countrymen. Nay, 
what is more, I have offered, I will offer myself a vic- 
tim, being ready to die if their good requires it. Think 
not that I fear death. I have no relatives left to mourn 



Humphrey's address. 



for me Logan's blood runs in no veins but these. I 
would not turn my heel to save my life, and why should 
I ? For I have neither wife, nor child, nor sister, to howl 
for me when I am gone !" 

Gone is the mighty warrior, the terrible avenger, the 
heart-bursting orator. Gone is the terror and glory of 
his nation ; and gone for ever from our elder states, are 
the red men, who, like Saul and Jonathan, were " swift- 
er than eagles, and stronger than lions ; and who, with 
the light and advantages which we enjoy, might have 
rivalled us in wealth and power— in the senate and the 
forum— as I am sure they would have surpassed us in. 
magnanimity and justice. 

But while the besom of destruction has thus swept 
away more than nine tenths of the aboriginal sovereign- 
ties of the country, a few of the more southern nbes 
have hitherto in a measure escaped, though greatly re- 
duced both in numbers and territory. And where is the 
philanthropist who has not rejoiced to see these tribes 
emerging so rapidly from Pagan darkness, and coming 
into the light of well regulated, civil and Christian com- 
munities ? How delightful has it been to dwell on the 
hope that the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and their abori- 
ginal neighbors, on this side the great river of the west, 
would be permitted to make their new and glorious ex- 
periment upon the soil which God gave to their fathers. 
What bright visions of their future intellectual and mo- 
ral elevation have shed the glories of a new creation 
upon all their mountains and plains ! 

But what cloud is that which now daskens their hea- 
vens' What voices of supplication and wo are heard 
from all their dwellings 1 The crisis of their fate has sud- 
denly come. The decree has gone forth. The mostun- 
iust and oppressive measures are in tram, either to drive 
70,000 unoffending people from the soil on which they 
were born, into distant wilds, where most of them will 
perish, or to dissolve their respective independent go- 
vernments, rob them of their lands and bring them under 
strange laws, the very design of which is to break down 
their national spirit, and insure their speedy extermi- 

"^T^go fully into the great question of Indian rights, 



10 



Humphrey's address. 



which is now pending before the American people, and 
which ought to rouse up all the holy sympathies of hu- 
manity, justice, and religion in the land, would require a 
volume ; but the facts in the case, on which the verdict 
of all generations must rest, maybe stated in a few words. 

And here, let every friend to' his country enter his so- 
lemn protest against any attempt which may be made 
to bring down this great question to the sordid level of 
party politics. Nothing can be more preposterous, no- 
thing more unsafe. We are all interested in giving the 
Indians a fair hearing, and in taking care that no injustice 
be done them. All parties have a common interest in 
preserving the faith and honor of the nation, whoever 
may happen for the time to administer the government. 

What then are the facts in the case before us— facts 
which it is impossible to dispute, without first burning up 
the records at Washington? What are the rights of the 
Cherokees, and of the other tribes within the chartered li- 
mits of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi ? What is 
their present condition ? What are the evils which now 
threaten them ? And what is the course which the ge- 
neral government is solemnly bound to pursue in this 
emergency. 

The Indian tribes then, whose fate at this moStent 
hangs in awful suspense, are, and always have been is- 
tmct national sovereignties. In their present loct on 
they have all the rights of preoccupancy. The first *j te 
settlers found them in the undisputed possession of ie 
wilderness which they are now so fast turning int a 
fruitful field — and of much larger and more fertile te i- 
tories which they have since ceded to the United Staj . 
The land was theirs by the highest possible title. 1 b 
Creator and proprietor of all lands gave it to them, i fc 
has the Indian title now in question ever been reco-£n 
ed as valid by the United States' government ? Aiwa} 
Has the right of these tribes to govern themselves, and 
exercise the prerogatives of independent states ever be€ 
called in question ? Never, till very latelv. On the* 
points there is no room left for debate. Our governmer 
has always treated them as bodies politic, enjoying no 
merely the right of occupancy, but of absolute property 
and self control on their respective reservation. 



Humphrey's address. I* 

Solemn treaties have been made with them, by all our 
Presidents, and sanctioned, as the constitution directs, 
ly Z Senate, with all the formalities of its high prero- 
gative In every one of these treaties the faith of the 
fa ton is Pledged and I bless God that hitherto that 
flith has never been violated. Such is the solemn, and 
cruel mockery, (if the treaties be not binding,) by which 
rCherokeel' and other tribes at the south have been 
induced to make, cession after cession, to the United 
States till more than three-fourths of their original ter- 
ritory including nearly all the most fertile tracts are in 
oXnds And they indulged the hope, no doubt that 
a magnanimous people would at last be satisfied to leave 
thZ their sterile mountains, and few remaining values, 
without importunity-certainly without violent seizure. 
But in this, alas, they find themselves grievously disap- 
pointed Give, givef is the cry which continues to vex 
their ears and sadden their hearts. 

They are now distinctly told, "You can no longer be 
tolerated as distinct communities here. A sovereign and 
independent state cannot permit the existence of other 
sovereignties within its limits. We want your lands, and 
ST^fdetermined to have them. You must set your 
faces, with your wives and children, toward the Rocky 
r mntains, and settle down where you will have more 
m , and be better off than here. Do you sayyouw 
t eo ? Then stay and take the consequences. We shall 
on make you recent of your obstinacy. Put out your 
mncil fires-demolish your court-houses-burn up your 
'X-depose your chiefs-and come under our junsdic- 
on-not'to enjoy equal rights with ourselves bu to be 
evaded and treated as incorrigible savages. This is the 
Itfrnative which is now presented to 70,000 men, women, 
iTchndren, in the 19th century, and under the sanction 
of the most enlightened and Christian republic on earth 
O teU it not in Gath ! If such a construction of the most 
solemn treaties, and guarantees is to .P^A*Vj! 
faith of this great nation is thus to be given to the four 
winds, then lit me plead for the Indians while I may- 
Tor who can tell how long he shall be permitted to enjoy 
this or anv other constitutional right! 

B^why are theChoctaws andCherokees so unwilling 



12 



Humphrey's address. 



to remove ? What is their present condition ? And what 
are the prospects which are opening upon them, if per- 
mitted to remain where they are ? Full answers to these 
questions would require hours, instead of a few moments* 
The truth is, that a mighty change is taking place in the 
character and condition of the southern Indians. Under 
the influence of industrious habits, of education, of reli- 
gion, and of efficient laws, they are waking up to a new 
existence. It may be doubted whether civilization ever 
advanced more rapidly in any part of the world than it 
is now advancing in some of their districts. Having 
abandoned the chase, multitudes of them are living in the 
enjoyment of independence and plenty, in comfortable 
houses, and upon their own well cultivated farms. They 
wear their own domestic fabricks. They have their mills, 
their mechanics, their labor-saving machinery, their 
schools, and their own Cadmus, too, under whose in- 
struction, a nation may almost literally learn to read in 
a day. They have, too, their legislative assemblies ; 
their courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction ; their ju- 
ries ; and nearly all the safe-guards of life, liberty, and 
property, which exist in the best regulated communities. 
For the suppression of intemperance, gaming, and other 
kindred vices, it may safely be. affirmed, that they have 
as good laws as any of their English neighbors, and they 
execute them at least as well. To give a single example ; 
" A case occurred in the Cherokee nation last spring, 
where one of the judges of the circuit court, on finding 
the air of the court-house strongly impregnated with 
whiskey, ordered the sheriff to follow certain suspected 
persons to their haunts in the woods, where he found 
and poured out the contraband article before their eyes. 
By the same judge, six men were fined fifty dollars each, 
for gambling, and one was fined for profane swearing." 
Add to all this, the Christian religion is taking deep root 
and rapidly filling the wilderness with churches and songs 
of salvation, under the instructions of pious teachers, and 
the remarkable effusion of the Holy Spirit. 

Now, in view of all these circumstances and brighten- 
ing prospects, can it be wondered at that the Indians are 
unwilling to remove ? And who that has a home of his 
own, and a heart of flesh in his bosom, can wish them to 



HUMPHREY^ ADDRESS. 



a 



go, contrary to their will ? Who that is not dead to sym- 
pathy, and deaf to justice, can resist the imploring ap- 
peal, which was lately made by a Choctaw chief, to the 
agent pf our government ? I wish a copy of it could be 
placed in every dwelling in the land, and read every even- 
ing, in every domestic circle, till every child should 
learn it bv heart. 

" We do not wish to sell our land and remove. I his 
land our great Father above gave us. We stand on it. 
We stood on it before the white man came to the edge of 
the American land. It belongs to no one in any place 
but ourselves. Our land is not borrowed land. White 
men came and sat down here and there all round us. 
When they wished to buy land of us we have had good 
counsels together. The white man always said the land 
is yours, it is yours:' Poor simple souls ! these savages 
thought the white men meant as they said, and would do 
as they promised ! 

" We have always been true friends to the American 
people. We have not spoiled the least thing belonging 
to an American. But now we are told, that the king of 
Mississippi is about to extend his laws over us. We, the 
chiefs and beloved men in this nation, are distressed. 
Our hands are not strong ; we are a small people ; we do 
not know much. We are distressed. Colonel Ward knows 
that we have just begun to build new houses, and make 
new fields, and purchase iron. We have begun to make 
axes, hoes and ploughs. We have some schools. We 
have begun to learn, and we have also begun to embrace 
the gospel. _ 

" We are like an infant that has just begun to walk ; 
we have just begun to rise and go. And now our great 
father, who sits in the white house looking this way, says 
to us : 'Unless you go yonder, the white man will extend 
his laws over you.' We do not say that his words are 
lies, but we are distressed. Oh that our great father 
would love us ! O that the king of Mississippi would love 
us ! The American people say they love liberty : they 
talk much about it. They boast of their own liberty. 
Why will thev take it from the red men ?" 

Take it from the red men ! With our consent, shall 
either the lands, or the liberty of these red men ever be 



14 



Humphrey's address. 



taken from them ? Never ! What ! either drive them into 
the great western desert; then over the Rocky Moun- 
tains ; and finally into the Pacific Ocean ; or else dissolve 
their governments, and crush them where they are ! God 
forbid that such inhumanity, that such injustice should 
ever stain the pages of our history. I had almost said, 
that such a record shall not go down to posterity. But, 
how can I hinder it? I am but an humble individual. I 
can have but little influence any where, and none where 
influence is most needed. But, as yet, I am free. I bless 
God, that I have a heart which cannot help being distress- 
ed for the poor persecuted Indians. I have a voice, 
feeble though it be, and no man, without the scimitar or 
bow string, shall hinder my pleading for the oppressed. 
I have a right to petition, to remonstrate, to implore, 
and God forbid that I should be silent. It shall be my 
aim, and my glory, at this fearful crisis, to enlist as many 
hearts, and tongues, and pens, and prayers as possible 
in the sacred cause of humanity, of national faith, and 
of eternal justice. I had rather receive the blessing of 
one poor Cherokee, as he casts his last look back upon 
his country, for having, though in vain, attempted to pre- 
vent his being driven from it, than to sleep beneath the 
marble of all the Caesars. 

Shall " I be told that all this is idle preaching" — that 
I have entirely mistaken the policy of Georgia in refer- 
ence to theCherokees — that she has no thoughts of com- 
pelling tham to emigrate ? I am astonished that such an 
expedient should be resorted to, to quiet the friends of 
the Indians, and to ward off public remonstrance. It is 
an insult offered to the common sense of the nation. 
What? Tell the Indians, "We want your country, and 
you had better leave it — You can never be quiet and hap- 
py here ?" And then, because they do not take your ad- 
vice, cut it up into counties, declare all their laws and 
usages, after a certain day, to be null and void, and sub- 
stitute laws which it is known they cannot live under ; 
and then turn round and coolly tell the world, "Oh! 
we mean no compulsion ! The fartherest in the world 
from it ! If these people choose to stay, why by all means 
let them remain where they are." These are the tender 
mercies of which we shall undoubtedly learn more in 



HUMPHREYS ADDRESS, 



15 



due time. And it all amounts to this. 44 You have got a 
fine farm and I want it. It makes a notch in a corner of 
mine. I will help you to move Jive hundred miles into 
the wilderness, and there give you more and better land, 
which you may cultivate and enjoy without molestation 
44 as long as grass grows and water runs."* You must 
go :— however, do just as you please. I shall never re- 
sort to any other compulsion than just to lay you under 
certain necessary restrictions. Perhaps, for instance, as 
I am the strongest, and you have more land than you 
want, I may take two thirds, or three fourths of it from 
you; but then there shall be no compulsion! Stay upon 
what is left if you choose. I may also find it necessary 
to ask you for your house, and if you should not give it 
up, I may be driven to the disagreeable necessity of chain- 
ing you to a ring bolt and giving you a few salutary stripes 
— not to compel you to flee from your habitation the mo- 
ment you can get loose, (for compulsion, of all things, 
I abhor,) but just to induce you to emigrate willingly." 

This my friends is the kind of free agency taught in 
the new school of metaphysics, which the Indians must 
learn and exercise whether they will or not— but as no 
such school is yet established in this part of the land, we 
must be excused in adhering, for the present, to our old 
fashioned notions about free agency, public faith, and 
common bounty. 

I maintain, then, that it is the bounden duty of the 
general Government to protect the Indians, not only in 
the enjoyment of their country, but of their laws. If it 
is possible for treaties to bind a nation in any case, then 
are we bound. If there is any such thing as public faith, 
then is ours solemnly pledged to a single Tribe nearly 
twenty times over. If that pile of Indian treaties, now 
in the office of State, is any thing more than a pile of 
frauds and insults, then the Government must interpose 
its strong arm to prevent aggression. Take the following 
as specimens of these compacts. Treaty of Holliston, 
Art. 7. 44 The United States solemnly guarantee to the 
Cherokee nation all their lands not hitherto ceded.'' 

Treaty of Tellico, Art. 6. 44 The United States will 

* Query — How long does water run in the region destined for the 
future residence of the Indians? 



16 



HUMPHREY S ADDRESS* 



continue the guarantee of theirs, that is, the Cherokee 
country, forever, as made and contained in former trea- 
ties." And who, let me ask, will stop to inquire, at this 
early period, when the first jubilee of our independence 
is hardly past, whether our most solemn national pledges 
shall be redeemed ? I feel confident that all the charges 
which can be rung upon state rights, and that terrific 
phrase, imperium in imperio, to drive the Indians from 
their country, will never satisfy the American people. 
The very summary process of disinheriting 70,000 per- 
sons at once by a novel construction of the Constitution, 
which begs the whole question — will never be sanctioned 
in the council of twelve millions. I repeat it — our go- 
vernment must defend the Indians against all encroach- 
ments and usurpations whatsoever, or stand before the 
World convicted of a disregard to public faith which it 
makes one shudder to think of. 

Under these circumstances, who can doubt, that if the 
voice of the whole American people could be heard in 
the -Capitol to-morrow, a great majority of them would 
implore and conjure both houses of Congress to interpose 
and save the character of the nation? And if I am not 
mistaken in this supposition, it is still possible to avert 
the ruin which is now impending over the Cherokees and 
their red brethren at the south. It is indeed the eleventh 
hour ; but they can be saved. The sovereignty of this 
great nation resides in the people ; and what should hin- 
der them from speaking in the ears of our rulers, "like 
the voice of many waters?" Let them speak, and the 
thing is done. The Indians can be saved with infinite- 
ly less expense of time and trouble than it costs every 
four years, to decide whether A or B or C shall be our 
next President. 

But perhaps some will despairingly ask, "What can 
we do here, in one corner of the land?" What can we 
do? We shall never know till we try. Injustice and 
cruelty have carried the day a thousand times through 
the mere apathy and discouragements of those who might 
have triumphed like Sampson. I will mention some things 
which we can do. We can feel for the persecuted rem- 
nant of that noble race of men upon whose soil we are 
building up a great empire. We can commune together 



Humphrey's address. 



11 



respecting their wrongs, and the dangers which surround 
them, till " our hearts burn within us." We can contri- 
bute in various ways, to lay the facts on which the justice 
of their cause rests, before such of our fellow-citizens as 
may not have had access to these facts. We can send 
in our petitions to Congress, and we can induce others to 
do the same. In the mean time, it cannot be doubted 
that the friends of justice and humanity will be active in 
almost every section of the country. Thus we may hope 
that there will be a general and simultaneous movement 
of the people toward Washington. 

And in this view of the case, will any one still demand 
"Who are we, and what are our numbers, that we should 
hope to gain a hearing in the high places of power?" 
I answer, we are, what our public servants delight to call 
us, the sovereign people — we are all the people, and that 
is enough. Every man in the nation, however poor, can 
go to Washington upon this business for nothing, as fast 
as the wheels of government can carry him. You un- 
derstand perfectly what I mean. We can all be heard 
in the Senate house by our petitions, if we please. We 
can block up the avenues which lead to it, with the mul- 
titude of our signatures; and whatever measures the 
voice of the nation shall demand, will ultimately be taken. 

Above all, we can send up our united petitions to the 
Court of Heaven, where the cause of the poor and the 
oppressed is never disregarded. And if the sublime ex- 
periment which the southern tribes of Indians are making, 
of civilization and self-government, should fail, through 
the cruel interference of white men, it is my solemn con- 
viction that it will be owing to the criminal supineness 
of those who in heart and conscience are opposed to such 
interference. For I will not believe, I cannot believe, 
that the coveters of other men's vineyards, and their abet- 
tors in this land, are more than a lean minority of the 
whole people. If our government was despotic the case 
would be different. We should not be answerable for 
measures over which we could exercise no control. But 
living as we do, under rulers of our own choice, we are 
answerable if we neglect to exert our influence to the ut- 
most in favor of righteousness, humanity, and public faith. 
But suppose the worst— suppose the government should 



18 



Humphrey's address. 



turn a deaf ear to our remonstrances. Let us not forget 
that duties are ours, while events belong to God. If we 
do what we can to save the Indians in this hour of their 
anguish and jeopardy, their blood will not be found in 
our skirts, though they should be trodden into the graves 
of their lathers, or be driven away to perish in deserts 
so remote that the " ill savor " of their carcasses may not 
come up into the nostrils of their destroyers. 

Do we then want motives for action at this critical, 
this awful juncture ? Such a crisis does not happen once 
m a century. Nothing like it is to be found in the his- 
tory of our country hitherto, and I pray God that no 
such crisis may ever occur here again. War has rava- 
ged the land more than once, or twice, with its tempests 
of fire and blood; but the question was never agitated 
till now, whether the public faith is to be held sacred or 
not. Who would have dared in the days of Washington, 
or Jefferson, to have broached such doctrines as have re- 
cently been promulgated by the highest authority in the 
nation ? How long ago, think you, could any man have 
gained a hearing to arguments which, if admitted, ff o to 
annihilate the faith of all our treaties? 

I ^ repeat the assertion, that we have come to such a 
crisis as neither we nor our fathers ever saw before. 

The great question is to be finally settled within a'few 
months, perhaps weeks, whether whole, peaceable nations 
shall be dispossessed, or virtually enslaved, under the eye, 
and with the approbation of a government which is so- 
lemnly pledged to protect them. And do we want mo- 
tives to remonstrate against this crying injustice ? Really, 
the motives are so many and so urgent— they throne so 
importunately about my path, that I know not what to 
do with them. Thrusting the greater part of them aside, 
I can only bestow a few moments upon some of the most 
prominent. 

And theirs* motive is drawn from the immutable and 
eternal principles of humanity and justice. Humanity 
pleads for the Indians with all her inexhaustable sympa- 
thies, and with all her eloquent tongues. They are dis- 
tressed. They are vexed. They are persecuted. The 
bos oms of tens of thousands of unoffending people are 
heaving with a common and mighty agony — occasioned 



Humphrey's address. 



19 



by the encroachments and menaces of those who ought 
to be their protectors. And where, if we do not speak 
and act, is our humanity. 

Justice too, with all its irrefragable arguments, urges 
us to remonstrate and to act. The most sacred rights of 
four nations, living under our protection and confiding 
in our republican faith, are invaded. And they cry to us 
for help. The heritage which God gave them is to be 
wrested from them ; or if permitted to retain the small 
portion of it which is now under cultivation, they are to 
be thrust down from their moral and political elevation, 
into the depths of despondency and ruin. And can any 
one who knows all this sit still and be quiet. 

What if only ten poor families in a remote corner of 
Maine or Missouri were threatened with similar outrage? 
Every man in the nation would rise up and blow the 
trumpet with all his might. What if some lordly op- 
pressor, having already ten times as much land as he 
could cultivate, should go to these families and say, " You 
must move off. I want your little farms, and will not 
take a denial" — Ten millions of voices would answer in 
thunder, " You sha'nt have them! No, never! These 
families have rights as well as you, and they shall be 
protected at all hazards." And where, I ask, is the dif- 
ference ? In the case supposed there are ten families, and 
in that of the Indians now under consideration, there are 
ten or fifteen thousand ! Where is the difference? Ah, 
the ten are white men, and the ten thousand are red men! 
Where is the difference? The former are protected in 
their rights by the constitution, and the latter by the so- 
lemn faith of treaties '.—there is the mighty difference ! ! 

A second motive, then, for stirring up all the moral 
power of this nation at this time, is found in the danger 
which threatens our own liberties. This suggestion, I 
am aware, will be ridiculed by many, and regarded by 
most as the offspring of a terrified imagination. Let 
those who choose, cry, " Peace and safety," and fold 
their arms and wait for the march of events. But if the 
II people sit still, and look calmly on, while the Indians are 
abandoned to their fate, in violation of the most solemn 
compacts, what security have we that the same govern- 
ment which deliberately breaks its treaties in the face of 



20 



HUMPHREY S ADDRESS, 



heaven and earth, will not, ten, or twenty years hence, 
find some plausible pretext for turning its power and 
patronage against the constitution itself? And if it should, 
how long, think you, will these paper and parchment bul- 
warks of ours stand ? How long will it be a blessing to 
be born and live in America, rather than in Turkey, or 
under the Autocrat of all the Russians ? 

Do you tell me that there is no possible danger— that 
no man, or number of men, will ever dare to assail our 
free and glorious institutions. Let the history of repub- 
lics, or rather let their tombstones decide this point be- 
tween us. So it would have been said when Washing- 
ton and Jefferson were at the head of our affairs, that no- 
body would ever dare to disinherit, or enslave the In- 
dians, protected as they are by almost a hundred and fifty 
treaties. And yet it is about to be done. And how much bet- 
ter is our parchment than theirs ? If such encroachments, 
acquiesced in, do hot prepare the way for putting shac- 
kles upon our children, they must be protected by higher 
munitions than constitutional bulwarks. This I am will- 
ing to leave upon record, and run the risk of its being 
laughed at fifty years hence. 

A third motive for earnest remonstrance at the present 
crisis, is found in the grand experiment which Ave as a 
nation are now making, before the whole world, of the 
.superior excellence and stability of republican institu- 
tions. How many thousand times has the parallel been 
proudly drawn by our statesmen and orators, between 
this country and every other nation under heaven. How 
triumphantly has it been proclaimed in the ears of all 
mankind, that here, at least, all the rights of the weak as 
well as the strong have found a sure protection. But let 
the stroke which is now impending, fall upon the heads 
of the poor defenceless Indians, and who will not be 
heartily and forever ashamed of all this boasting? Who 
will ever dare to say another word about the partition of 
Poland? Who in a foreign land will ever hereafter be 
willing to own that he is an American. How will all the 
enlightened friends of free institutions in other countries 
mourn over this indelible stigma upon our national cha- 
racter; and how will the enemies of equal rights triumph 
in our disgrace. Verily, "we are made a spectacle to 
the world, and to angels, and to men." 



ADDRESS, 



21 



The last motive which I have time to mention, and 
can but just allude to, is, that there is a just God in hea- 
ven, and that sooner or later his wrath will wax hot 
against the nation that tramples upon the rights of its 
defenceless and imploring neighbors. Tell me not of 
your twelve millions of people— of the exploits of your 
armies and navy-of the unparalleled growth and inex- 
haustible resources of the country. Wha will all these 
avail when God shall come out of his place to make 
inquisition for blood?" Prouder and mightier nations 
than this have fallen, and how can we expect to escape 
if we "use oppression, and exercise robbery, and vex the 

poor and needv?" . , , . . 

F The Cherokees and Choctaws cannot, indeed, resist our 
arms. They lie at the mercy of their white neighbors. 
They are like little trembling flocks of kids, surrounded 
by lions. But though they are too weak to meet us in 
the field, they are not too weak to lift up their cries to 
heaven against us. Though they are too few to defend 
their country against our rapacity, there are enough ot 
them to "appear as swift witnesses against us in tne 
Court above? and they will assuredly have the right ot 
testifying secured to them there, however they may be 
restricted and oppressed in courts below. Their num 
bers are more than sufficient to bring down the judgments 
of God upon their cruel oppressors. Who then will 
" make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Him for 
the land that He should not destroy it?" The crisis is 
awful, and the responsibilities of our rulers and ot the 
whole nation is tremendous ! The Lord is a holy God, 
and he is jealous ! 



[See next pagt. 



22 



PUBLIC MEETING AT BOSTON IN 1830, 



At a meeting of gentlemen from all parts of the Common- 
wealth, in the hall of the House of Representatives, Boston, 
February 8, 1830,* a Memorial to Congress was presented, and 
after having been read, its adoption was moved by Mr. Choate, 
and seconded by Mr. Saltonstall. Both these gentlemen 
made able and conclusive speeches, in support of the perfect 
right of the Indians to the lands which they occupy. The Me- 
morial was unanimously adopted ; and the Chairman and Se- 
cretaries were requested to sign it in behalf of the meeting, and 
to forward it to Congress. Here follows the Memorial. 

Mr. Worcester then moved the following resolutions : 

_ Resolved, That the pending controversy, in regard to the 
rights of the Indians, is a subject which eminently calls for the 
expression of public opinion ; and that we therefore strongly re- 
commend to our fellow citizens, that public meetings be held, 
resolutions adopted, and memorials forwarded, by the friends of 
justice and of our national honor, in every part of the United 
States. 

_ Resolved^ That since the Indians must look to the interposi- 
tion of Congress, as the only probable way in which their rights 
can be defended, it is important that members of our National 
Legislature should be aware of the deep interest which is felt in 
this subject by a very large portion of their constituents; and 
that there is far more danger of apathy and indifference, when 
our national character for good faith and fair dealing is in ques- 
tion, than of too much zeal and earnestness in behalf of the hither- 
to unsullied honor of our country, or of too much sympathy with 
the weak and suffering. 

The mover supported the resolutions in a short speech, the 
purport of which was, that if the cause of the Indians is lost, it 
will be lost by the indifference, the apathy, the criminal negli- 
gence of the people of the United States. 

The resolutions were seconded by Henry Shaw, Esq. of 
Lanesborough, who warmly approved of the manner in which 
the meeting had been conducted; namely, by addressing the 
reason and judgment, by regular legal and constitutional argu- 
ments. He also decidedly approved the assembling of the peo- 
ple, in orderly meetings, to consider questions of this kind. 

The Committee were then directed to publish the Memorial, 
and to address a Circular Letter to their fellow citizens in every 
part of the Commonwealth. 

Every question was carried without a dissenting voice. 

Both the meetings were highly respectable, on account of the 
number and the character of gentlemen who were present. 



* See page 2 of the cover 



BD 12.8 




CXRCUX1A& MMBR, 

Fellow Citizens, Boston, February 1830, 

At a very respectable meeting of gentlemen from all parts 
of the Commonwealth, convened by pablic notice in the Hall of 
the House of Representatives of the State House in Boston, on 
the 21st ult., the undersigned were appointed a Committee of 
Correspondence ; and it was made one part of their duty to ad- 
dress a Circular Letter, on the present relations between the 
United States and the Indians, to their fellow citizens in all 
parts of the Commonwealth. 

When the foregoing Memorial was adopted, which was on 
the 8th inst., at °a very respectable meeting, of which public 
notice had also been given, the same duty was again assigned 
to the Committee; and, in both instances, the assignment was 
made without a dissenting voice. 

The Committee are impelled, therefore, by the instructions oi 
the meeting, as well as by their own feelings, to address a few 
words to the friends of humanity and justice in every part of the 
Commonwealth, on this exceedingly important subject. 

The question now depending, as it is understood by multitudes 
of candid and intelligent men, in nearly all parts of the United 
States, is no less than this : Shall the people of the United States 
faithfully observe the solemn treaties which they have made with 
the Cherokees and other Indian nations— according to the true 
intent and meaning of those engagements, and the understand- 
ing of the parties ? 

You will exclaim at once, It is impossible that there should 
be any doubt how this question must be answered. We would 
gladly think so too; but when we call to mind that some politi- 
cians gravely declare Indian communities not to be nations, and 
treaties with Indians not to be binding ; and that other politi- 
cians insist on expediency, as the only proper rule of public mo- 
rality, so far as Indians are concerned ; when we find some wri- 
ters and speakers refuse to look at public engagements with the 
Indians, but plead the right of releasing themselves from these 
engagements on the ground that Indians are poor, and weak, 
and degraded, and rapidly tending to extinction ; when we ob- 
serve, that the most authentic facts, respecting the present im- 
proved condition of the Cherokees and Choctaws, are utterly dis- 
regarded by nearly all those who urge their removal; and that 
the imagined interest of several States is constantly and power- 
fully aMvork to devise the means of acquiring the lands of the 
Indians;— and when we advert to the fact, that the President cf 
the United States, and the Secretary of War, have repeatedly 
declared 10 the Cherokees, Creeks, and Choctaws, that these 
tribes cannot protected against the laws of Georgia, Alabama, 
and Mississippi, although it is perfectly obvious, from the trea- 



CIRCULAR LETTER. 



ties themselves, and the construction which has been given them 
ever since the year 1785, that one principal object of all the trea- 
ties was the protection of the Indians from all intrusion of whites 
either for purpose of settlement or jurisdiction: When we see 
all these things, and remember that, in the language of Mr. Wil- 
berforce, "Self-interest is an overmatch for benevolence," we 
cannot but feel greatly concerned, lest the character of oar coun- 
try should receive a deep and lasting wound, and the Cherokees 
and other tribes should experience great injustice. 

There has never been an occasion, since the Declaration of In- 
dependence, on which it more became the People of the United 
States to speak their minds, than on the present. Every citizen 
who is capable of feeling any thing, must feel deeply for the 
honor of his country ; every citizen ought, therefore, to become 
sufficiently acquainted with the merits of tins question to express 
his opinion upon it. 

Yet there is danger that the voice of the public will not be 
raised to such a note of earnestness and remonstrance as to arrest 
the present course of events. Certainly no one should presume 
that this will be done, unless men of character and intelligence in 
every part of our country will spend some time, and take some 
pains, to direct the attention of their fellow citizens to this subject. 

But if the people generally, should manifest a deep interest in 
the pending controversy, and should insist on the most scrupu- 
lous regard to good faith, and to a kind, humane, and generous 
as well as just course of conduct with the Indians, it is plain that 
results highly beneficial may be expected. 

The public conscience should be kept awake and alive to all 
public measures which are to have a bearing on the reputation 
of the country, or on the esteem in which the cardinal virtues of 
truth and justice are held. In regard to no subject whatever 
would a general apathy be so dangerous in its consequences, and 
so discreditable to the people. 

In accordance with the views of the meeting which we repre- 
sent, permit us to suggest, that meetings should be called in the 
various towns of the Commonwealth, where they have not. al- 
ready been held, at which meetings the Bights of the Indians 
should be considered, the preceding Memorial read, and mea- 
sures taken to express the opinions and feelings of the people, 
in a memorial to Congress, from inhabitants of each town. 

It is desirable that this should be done without delay, as Con- 
gress will probably act upon the subject at the present session ; 
and w T ithin a few weeks public-spirited efforts in behalf of the 
Indians may be too late. 

William B. Calhoun, Leverett Salt^stall, 
Rufus Choate, Samuel Ho*k, 

Samuel M. Worcester. Charlfs G, Loring, 
Edward Reynolds. 




Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
^ Treatment Date: March 2010 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 1 6066 
(724) 779-2111 



iliiiiSi ° F j congresS| 

0 024 426 004 4 



